I've often heard that the bone is stronger where it breaks after it heals. There should be plenty of research on this. I would assume there's also research on fractures.

Another thing, for kids who are born with one leg shorter, they're told not to have cushioning or raised heels to compensate because the increased shock will stimulate bone growth.

Given those things, bone conditioning is itself not an outlandish idea.

However, what seems to confound it, is shin breaks all seem to happen to Muay Thai fighters who have done lots of shin conditioning. We've got some evidence that points to traditional bone conditioning leading to weaker bones...

It is a test. Can you break using structure versus sheer power generation.

can you break without jumping up and using mere bodyweight or a slap from a relaxed structure.

If you train in Kempo and seriously think you are going to claw into peoples faces and palm them down without training your hands, you are not being realistic.

You will be much better if you train your hands.

Untrained hands will break.

Trained hands will not.

I have clawed peoples' faces and hit people with palm strikes. I didn't hurt my hand one bit. I still don't understand the need to break concrete. I would never claw someone to a hard surface, like the skull. That would be insane. Palm stikes to the jaw or cheekbones are not likely to break the hand and hardly require Iron Palm training. If you hit with the heel of the hand, chances are you'll be fine.

I get the need to hit a harder surface from time to time, stiff heavy bag with no gloves maybe or a makiwari board... but concrete? Isn't that a little overkill?

I have clawed peoples' faces and hit people with palm strikes. I didn't hurt my hand one bit. I still don't understand the need to break concrete. I would never claw someone to a hard surface, like the skull. That would be insane. Palm stikes to the jaw or cheekbones are not likely to break the hand and hardly require Iron Palm training. If you hit with the heel of the hand, chances are you'll be fine.

I get the need to hit a harder surface from time to time, stiff heavy bag with no gloves maybe or a makiwari board... but concrete? Isn't that a little overkill?

I think he's asking you to demo on him, sir.

I dont even know what "Jiulong Baguazhang" is, but it must be pretty hardcore.

Not a bad idea at first glance, but there’s a huge confounding variable: White belts will on average tend to have inferior punching technique, and a higher injury rate may reasonably be ascribed to that rather than to any difference due to conditioning. A similar argument is applicable to the kickboxers, who have less experience in bare-knuckled punching techniques. (There may be no difference, but in order to eliminate this variable you have to show that there is no difference.)

Uechi-style kicks? Or just conditioning stuff? Either way, ouch.

mmmm, how about white belts vs Kbers with <6 mos training? would that eliminate comfounding variables? Or just match them solely on # of months training.

Don't know how to fix the glove/no glove problem.

re: kicks. Matsubayashi toe tip kick. kicking with the big toe fully extended. The kick is useless unless you condition the toe for an absurd amount of time. I've kicked makiwara, heavy bags, light kicks to my bed frame. The joints end up impacting each other and my podiatrist actually said that I'd have to shave almost a quarter inch from my second phalange (is that correct?) to get my toe back to normal. Only problem is, that means no training for 3 months and even my walks will have to be brief.

Whatever. Learn the difference between a possessive pronoun and a contraction.

Again, what training value is there in breaking concrete with your bare hands? If you argue that you will strike harder, I will counter that you can knock someone out just fine without being able to break concrete. If you argue that it is a test of skill or some show of manhood, fine. Some lame ego boost is the only real benefit that I can see from the endeavor. If the argument is that you will be less likely to break your hand, then that is reasonable, but again, overkill. I can't break concrete but I can hit you full force with a fist or a palm strike and not break my hand. I still don't see the point. So, maybe I am missing the point. Please enlighten me... and look up the difference between a possessive and a contraction before you do.